as to what kind of season this christmas season will be? and corporate america starts hitting the brakes on support for lance armstrong. one of the biggest names in sports, maybe the biggest, dropping him like a stone today. more on all that coming up. sue is on assignment. we'll hear from her later. first though, simon's at the nyse. >> the vulnerability of technology locks outside apple during the earnings season is large today. losses of just over 5% on ibm. intel down over 3%. we're finding it difficult to get traction despite the fact that most sectors are in positive territory. still broadly we are creeping back to those record highs. take a look at the board. the dow about 620 points, or 4.5% from its october 2007 peak. the s&p about 100 points off its october 2007 peak. about 6.5%. we're five years older and

almost back to where we were. >> all right. it is the day after debate -- i take my pen out of my mouth -- debate number two. the president and governor romney both back on the campaign trail. there are just 20 days to go now before election day. president obama in mt. vernon, iowa at this hour. governor romney down in my home state, in chesapeake, virginia. john harwood is here with us. where do the candidates stand now, john? what are they doing, how are they spinning it? >> they're both out on battleground states. both where barack obama has a slight lead over the president. couple points in iowa. less than a point in virginia if you look at the real clear politics average. i think what president obama has done is gone back on to the campaign trail with some confidence that he's put a floor under his numbers. mitt romney made a lot of progress after the debate in denver. narrowed the polls nationally and in swing states. president obama put a brake on that momentum last night by going hard at mitt romney on bain, on taxes, on 1%.

and i think we'll see in the next debate, the final debate in boca raton, another swing state in florida where romney's actually been leading, whether or not the foreign policy debate can generate some new momentum. >> these were two heavyweights in the ring. i've never seen that sort of physicality in the room last night. >> remember how in the year 2000 when al gore invaded the space of george w. bush and people said look what he did, and bush diffused it with kind of a little funny greeting and shrug of his shoulders and he kept talking to the audience. these guys got in each other's face and were bark, the whole tim time. both of them i think were too hot at times for the television audience but that shows you how much they want it. >> in the era of cable, hotness sometimes counts. john harwood, be back with you in a little bit. simon? we have two big stories in housing right now. the first is the big jump that we've reported today in housing

starts. the second is breaking right now with diana olick in washington. >> simon, bank of america reporting it has completed or approved more than $4.75 billion in more principal reductions. 30,000 homeowners getting their loans slashed by an average $145,000 each. bank says it will meet its total obligations under the settlement in the first of the three-year agreement. now that break news just adds to the positive numbers in housing out today. construction and permits for new homes. one analyst called the numbers blowout and the jumps are big. but remember the actual number of housing starts is still below any number we've seen since 1982. we are about half-way back to a normal new home market. total september housing starts jumped nearly 35% from a year ago. single family starts up 43% from a year ago.

multi-family up 19%. it is the permits that are really stunning. total up 45% from a year ago. single family permits up 27%. multi-family up 93%. and that multi-family number had cantor fitzgerald out this morning with with a note warning of headline risk in multi-family reits. avalon bay, equity residential and udr to name a few. they're still positive on the group though. a new report out from pwc today looking to 2013 is also still bullish on the apartment rental sector citing still low supply despite these incredible new numbers. more of that is on the blog realtycheck.cnbc.com. i've posting the housing number stats on the facebook page so you can see it all yourself. the beat goes on. >> beautiful day down there in d.c. housing starts have been jumping. mr. pisani's been saying it for weeks. it is a stealth rally that's brought us back to near record highs. unemployment still a big problem for the company. so many americans jobless and

having trouble finding work for a long time. some other indicators though, are they starting to leave -- are we starting to leave the unemployed behind? steve leisman is our senior economics reporter. john harwood our chief washington correspondent. steve, for you, is the economy little by little better than we're giving it credit for? >> it is for the moment. i'm a little bit concerned about making a broader call because of what's been the seasonality to the data. remember we were gang busters in january, february and march and i thought -- then we went into this dip. we're definitely coming out of this swoon of the springtime and the summer. but whether or not it is here to stay, i'm thrice burned here and i'm not ready to say this is going to be permanent but it is definitely true, some key consumer indicators from sentiment to retail sales and housing have turned in a meaningful way and they will hopefully begin to make a little bit more serious progress. >> yet the economy is growing slower, isn't it, than it was in 2010, than it was at a

comparable time in 2011. >> but i would caution you on that. because of this better incoming data, we've been ratcheting up gdp outlook for the third quarter. the big missing link right here right now is confidence and that's really the fiscal cliff concern, is that we have business saying they're holding back. they're concerned about the debt. they're concerned about the fiscal cliff. so they're holding back on hiring and spending plans that could really make a dent in unemployment. >> not that either candidate wants to leave the unemployed behind but my question, when the president said -- and it was sort of rare to hear this degree of candor -- those jobs aren't coming back, some of them. that was a signal to me that the economy is changing and that maybe we'd better get ready for a higher what we would call full employment rate. >> well, the president has been making the argument since he has been in office that we need to change some of the economic foundation long term, change the energy foundation of the economy to enhance our economic growth long term. invest in education and job training and that sort of thing.

you've got a real contrast in the campaign because mitt romney's most powerful moments last night were when he was hammering away at the inability of the president in these four years to deliver improved economic data. now steve just mentioned the seasonality of the data. it is a good seasonality for president obama because we're in leak season right now. and the fact that you see more and more americans saying the country's on the right track, few are saying we're heading in the wrong direction, more economic confidence, that's all putting a floor under the president. >> final thoughts, steve. >> it's very important when president obama says those jobs are not coming back, it is true. some jobs are never coming back. that's the way the economy changes. what he might have been hinting out and what the broader discussion is at the federal reserve and i think from policymakers in general is, are we going to have to live with a higher unemployment rate? that is the question. i don't think economists are ready to say yes. >> used to be 4% was full employment. are we now talking -- >> 6%, 7%. it is a critical question. i don't think we are ready to

make a decision on it yet but we're having this debate right now. is it structural, or is it cyclical? can we put them back to work, or they ain't going back to work. housing starts are jumping. the stock market near all-time highs. maybe your 401(k) is feeling a little more sprightly. do you feel like the american economy is strong again? that's finance.com's question of the day. results are coming back. energy was a clear focus of last night's debate. watching where we are on oil prices sitting around session lows on a new report that shows inventories on the rise but we're still above, importantly, $91 a barrel. sharon epperson is track being the action at the new york merc. >> we are looking at u.s. oil prices that are at their highest level on record for mid-october. we did see a surprise increase in crude oil supplies and that's pressured oil prices somewhat. we are looking at product sun that is up. oil inventories year over year that are up about 11%.

oil production is up about 12.5%. and this at the same time that there's weak demand. at least fee finery demand. it is down slightly. big slide in prices today is in weak formulated gasoline futures. in fact the lowest prices here at the nymex we're seeing since october 3rd. >> of course, it was energy independence that was the big topic in last night's presidential debate. today all day on cnbc we're focusing on that hot topic of energy. cnbc's brian schactman is in williston, north dakota, focusing on a very controversial, but important, question -- to frac or not to frac. >> thank you very much, tyler. the boom here is very much still intact. maybe it's gone from frantic to just hectic, and some people are pointing to the political uncertainty for that. take fracking, for example. this entire story in the block in billions of investment

dollars, all of that might disappear and disappear fast if anything severe is done about fracking. >> things could stop here as quick as a thief in the night. i think we've made dramatic changes and i think we're doing things with a great deal of caution and care. >> reporter: his point there is that they're trying to frack as environmentally conscious as possible but you have to be clear about this oil boom. it is not just about the oil. you look at construction behind me, it is all over the landscape. it's also a job story. homes will be occupied by the people working in the area, of course, and the hope is to bring prices down because right now it is not easy to live here. >> if you're coming here and you decide you're going to work for walmart, sure, that may be paying you $17 an hour but that still doesn't allow you to pay $2,500 a month for an apartment. >> of course energy is key. oil production in north dakota is basically the reason why oil production in this country is

up. but this boom is multi-layered and affects a slew of industry. that's why the people out here, frankly, don't want politics to get in the way of this prosperity. back to you. >> brian schactman reporting from north dakota. now to seema mody with a "market flash." >> network security names mochg lower thanks to fortinet krith weakness in europe and slowing demand in china. down almost 20%. >> thank you very much. bank of america clawing its way back and get ready for a big battle this season. kayla tausche diving in b of a's earnings, courtney reagan on what the retailers are planning. kayla? >> tyler, wall street was expecting a loss but bank of america surprised with 0 cents a share but is that even good news? i'll take you inside the numbers and giver you the real help of the company. >> thanks, kayla. now to courtney. >> tyler, if you can't beat 'em, match 'em. why price matching by big box stores will be the major theme

this holiday season and what it means for you. that's coming up next on "power lunch." mike rowe here at a ford tell me fiona, who's having a big tire event? your ford dealer. who has 11 major brands to choose from? your ford dealer. who's offering a rebate? your ford dealer. who has the low price tire guarantee... affording peace of mind to anyone who might be in the market for a new set of tires? your ford dealer. i'm beginning to sense a pattern. buy four select tires, get a $60 rebate. use the ford service credit credit card, get $60 more. that's up to $120. where did you get that sweater vest? your ford dealer.

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when you can't do the normal things. to help, sleep train is collecting donations for the extra activities that, for most kids, are a normal part of growing up. not everyone can be a foster parent... but anyone can help a foster child. welcome back to "power lunch." seema mody here at the market flash desk. some news around green mountain coffee hitting the tape. the company looking to expand overseas moving ahead of its

canadian business to a position it calls president of international business development. the stock up roughly 8%. rick santelli is live in chicago. >> of course we have blowout numbers on housing today on starts and permits. along with news that's stabilizing in europe, funding costs neseem to be moderate. the bull market is here and now. if you look at a two-day chart, we've rallied 13 basis points. it's been a monday since we've been up at these yields. near our all-time low closing yield which was 1.40. 10-minus 2s, 1.51. dollar index has lost.66%.

it is a big week for financials, not least for earnings. a day after citi's ceo actually quits, bank of america reports. company beating the street despite a profit plunge, it has to be said. the shares up -- well flat for the session, overall they are up about 70% year to date. kayla tausche breaking down this set of financials for us. >> shares have been on a roller coaster ride today around that break-even line after the company reported a slim quarterly profit of $340 million. earnings of 0 cents a share beating expectations with the bank seeing slight improvements in investment banking and mortgage banking. cfo bruce thompson telling reporters this morning that housing clearly is turning a corner, though headwinds remain including foreclosures reinforcing, though with less gusto, a sentiment shift from industry executives. bank of america is seeing a boost in first lien mortgages as well as a $3 billion rise in value for its mbs portfolio,

largely based on the federal reserve's third quarter buying spree. while the bank's $20.6 billion in revenue represented a 28% drop from a year earlier, the earnings came during a quarter that was saddled with a $1.6 billion legal charge to settle claims it misled investors about the merrill lynch deal. but investors view the deal as a positive removing a lingering legacy risk from the bank. the ability to cap future litigation at $6 billion as it said this morning, when all told the bank has incurred some $29 billion in settlement charges since the financial crisis. as for other expenses, thompson said the bank has cut about 21,000 jobs, or 8%, of its non-legacy assets servicing workforce and that it is on track to reach the $8 billion in cost cuts that it's laid out in project bac for the next couple years. it's been all quiet on the analyst front. we haven't seen any upgrades or downgrades. the stock is pretty much midd

middling. nothing bad, but nothing all too great. >> the fact that citi's board was willing to oust vpandit. >> i think you need to pay attention to the project new bac which is their cost cutting mechanism. they laid that out last year, that was brian moynihan's personal project as ceo. i think when we start to get toward the end of that cost cutting plan, that's when you can start to think about succession, what happens when the bank enters its new stage of life. i think until then, the board's letting moynihan carry on with the current strategic plan that they have in place. >> kayla, thank you. if you can't beat m 'em, at least match 'em. price matching a major theme this holiday season as big box stores try to take on the online players. courtney reagan on the retail beat.

>> price matching seems to be last year's free shipping. we're still two weeks away from halloween but retailers are already one-upping each other when it comes to enticing consumers to shop with them this season. target revealing its holiday strategy, including a look at the merchandise it is partnering with neiman marcus to sell. it is offering price matching select online competitors, including amazon.com. it is race to a bottom for retailers this season. margins will get compressed. >> we're already confident in our pricing and we know there will be some small amount of imact here but at the end of the day we have over a long history delivered sales growth, while matching prices and delivering profitability. that's what we'll continue to do. >> best buy will match certain online competitors on certain product categories whether it makes sense. toys "r" us is price matching brick and more tan competitors but not online retailer erers s

of retailers that don't price match could get left behind. >> speaking of best buy, they've announced, and you confirmed last night, they are going to come out with their own private label tablet under the insignia brand. some might say they're a little late to the game. you got a company called apple, one called microsoft that's a fairly good sized one. amazon, of course. barnes & noble. why? smart move? >> toys "r" us also has their own version of a tablet. some think it is a necessary move. believe it or not, best buy has had some success with other products under this insignia brand. is anyone going to beat apple? probably not. jd capital's david strausser thinks it is actually kind of a smart move. these tablets could become commoditization products. >> who knows. check this out. ibm is really smacking the dow today. the stock's $11 decline taking

the dow down nearly 90 points on its own. if ibm -- without ibm, i'm told we'd be up about 75 points on the average. really? that big? we'll talk to the analysts about what's actually going on with ibm next. but there is, meanwhile, inevitably some green on the horizon. here are some of your wednesday winners. back after the break. [ female announcer ] with the e-trade 360 investing dashboard.

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time to "analyze this." jim, welcome. good to have you back. ibm slammed, disappointing earnings results. several analysts downgrading the stock today. from buy to hold on the back of mixed results. shares down 5% a day. downgrade for ibm? >> it is a pretty big deal. they cite problems in the consulting department. the market wants to different l differentiate between old-world pc, so quarrel. >> let's move on to cantor fitzgerald, downgrading another big tech company, cisco, to hold from buy noting "we view the shares as likely range bound." past three months, up 15%. >> what's interesting to me is that it is not really that company specifically. they were more talking about macro headwinds, more

particularly the fiscal cliff. though i don't agree the fiscal cliff will come to any huge fruition, i like that range. >> don't have to sell, don't have to buy. disappointing earnings. downgrading pnc from hold to buy citing interest compression -- i don't know what that means. >> what it means is that interest earning on stuff they own is not good in comparison to the interest they're paying on debt that they have. it is a pretty serious charge. problem i have with this call is that pnc was down 10% before this call even happened. don't think they should be flagged for piling on but it is close to unsportsmanlike conduct. i think he is a little late. >> thanks. kate kelly has breaking news. breaking news. interestingly, out of the hedge fund community in london, graeg

coffey is retiring not just from moore but also from the business at the ripe old age of 41. greg coffey telling investors he is tired it's been 20-some years. he is eager to spend more time with his growing family and spend more time in his native australia. people were a little bit surprised by this news. some at moore and people who used to work there think it was a very abrupt move. obviously people in coffey's inner circle knew about it. the company was unaware. it almost seemed like a pandit style departure. the more reporting i did, the more it is being framed as yet another hedge fund manager to finds the markets difficult to manage, the whole job a grind and just wants a break. to look at numbers, greg coffey started his own hedge fund within moore capital late last year. they've had a bit of a rough go. but in september they were up 9%. in some ways the timing was a little bit surprising to people. this fund managed about $100

million and it's being liquidated. think it is almost all totally liquidated at this point in time and the money is being returned to investors. lewis bake hon brought greg coffey over from lgl in late 2008 and regarded him as somebody who might take his own place some day wishes him well saying coffey's been a significant contributor to moore's european business. we are disappointed that he is choosing to retire from the industry. moore capital still one of the in biggest. >> kate, thank you. gold prices getting ready to close. we'll head to the nymex for the final trades. plus, nike dumping lance armstrong. ending its contract with him. but was it the right move? what's the difference between lance and tiger? payroll.keeping him on we'll discuss that. americans are always ready to work hard for a better future.

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i'm sharon epperson at the nymex. gold prices are closing right now, finally above $1,750 an ounce. we're back above that key psychological level and traders are looking at the strength in the euro.

part of the reason why we're seeing some stabilization here in the gold price. keep in mind though, we may see prices go even higher. we've seen the range narrow here an some traders say that could cause a breakout and perhaps a breakout to the up side. hsbc raising its price targets today, specifically for the 2013 year. they're saying that we're going to see gold prices at $1,900 an ounce by the end of the year. that's a raise that they've seen there for the gold price. that's by the end of this year, rather. $1,900 by the end of this year. copper prices also breaking out after we got that positive data on housing starts. that certainly has helped that market. and we definitely saw an immediate reaction there. industrial commodities benefiting from that news about the u.s. economy. simon? back to you. >> thank you very much, sharon. if you look to the headlines on the equity market today, they're relatively inauspicious until you notice the levels at which we're trading. 1,460 for example on the s&p. bob pisani has more on the markets. >> it is that creeping rally that we've been getting for days

now. we closed at the highs yesterday, second day in a rose. euro is strong today. the your video on the verge of a breakout, multi-month highs here, dollar's usually on the downside of that. that helps. energy, financial material stocks. you see the tech stocks weak all day. ibm has been a weight on the dow. intel a little bit of disappointment as well. if you look at the housing situation that sharon just referenced here, september housing starts up 35% year over year. most of the big housing names like lennar and ryland are at highs. owens corning is up. masco. vul can materials. s&p 1,460 -- the four and a half year high, 1,465. we're just a few points away from closing highs as well. >> the one sparrow in the works is tech. i'll take it at the nasdaq, simon.

we've got intel big drag of course. the ibm news is also compounding the tech drag. intel hitting a new low here after a disappointing outlook. that is when chip equipmentmakers like applied materials. on the pc, makers like dell because that's where the weakness is coming. look at a couple of other spectacular down movers today. apollo group, its enrollment down 14%. it hits a new low today, along with checkpoint software there which also saw its fourth quarter earnings well below expectations. nasdaq leaders today include green mountain coffee and new all-time highs for amgen and comcast. comcast citing a deal with pace to develop new set top boxes, among other things. nike one of the top brand in sports, one of the top brands of all brands, severing ties with one of the world's most recognizable athletes. that would be lance armstrong.

nike saying due to the seemingly unsurmountable evidence that lance armstrong participated in doping and misled nike, they are terminating their contract with him. the ceo of quitkin and company, also an avid cyclist and amateur triathlete. did nike really have any choice here? >> they did not. i think the calculus around their choice is quite simple. but it is unprecedented for them because they have a history of standing behind troubled athletes. but if lance himself admits that staying by his own -- staying with his own foundation is troubling potentially as a negative adverse impact on his ability to perform there, nike would follow suit as well. >> he stepped down as chairman

of his armstrong cancer foundation. talk to me about the relationship between nike and livestrong clothing that obviously carries the brand that is so closely associated with him. are they severing their relationship with it? >> i don't know if they're severing their relationship but i did notice that nike did make mention of the fact that they will continue to support the foundation and its efforts which i thought was a good move on their part, not just commercially but i think ethically. i think the other question is -- i think this is something that you talked about earlier -- why is it that nike's treating this differently from their other troubled athletes in the past. >> they've had a long history of sticking with troubled athletes from kobe bryant to tiger woods, even joe paterno. why are they treating armstrong differently than those others in a nutshell? >> in a nutshell, and sadly, think the american public is far more forgiving of cheaters in the bedroom than they are of cheaters playing field or boardroom. the big challenge for lance is

to compete back for his reputation. i feel like he's acting like a little bit like obama did in the first presidential debate. if he doesn't break his silence i'm worried that he's going to go down like the bernie madoff of the cycling world. >> on that note we live it. thank you aaron quitkin. a "market flash" with seema mody. >> take a look at st. jude medical. the company reporting earnings this morning beating street estimates. however on the conference call, the ceo said that the fda may issue a warning letter around one of its manufacturing facilities in california where its cardiac rhythm products are made. the stock around that uncertainty is down roughly 6%. back to you. if you're just joining us, welcome. here are some of the other big headlines driving the cnbc session this wednesday. shares of health retailers, vitamin shoppe and gnc are on the move after a new clinical study shows multi-vitamins may reduce the risk of cancer in men by 8%. in energy m and a, exxon-mobil

is buying celtic exploration for just over $3 billion. and in earnings, pepsi beats estimates despite a drop in the profits. revenues fell short though because of currency swings. that dollar hurting pepsi. american made, a major theme in the election. martha stewart launching a major event in her hometown. we'll tak with her next. bob pittman one of the most successful media moguls in the history of the world! he'll be with us. [ male announcer ] the 2013 smart comes with 8 airbags, a crash management system and the world's only tridion safety cell which can withstand over three and a half tons. small in size. big on safety.

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in today's yahoo! finance poll we ask with housing starts jumping in september, and stocks at near all-time highs, do you feel like the american economy is strong again. reminder, contact us still with the yahoo! finance survey. let's see what's coming up on "street signs." >> say you want to refinance your mortgage but your house value just came in too low. what are your options? we get the tricks of the trade from a very busy home appraiser. big blue under pressure after missing on revenues. if ibm closes lower today, could have be an omen for stocks in the weeks to come? later in the show we travel to coal country after mitt romney gave the industry some props at last night's debate. see you top of the hour, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. eastern. >> mandy and sully every weekday on street signs. if you can't beat them, join

them. best buy now planning to sell its own tablet pc. going head-to-head effectively with apple, amazon and a host of other tablet makers. a desperate move by a desperate retailer. that's ahead. plus the u.s. post office hitting its $15 billion borrowing limit for the first time ever. are the price of stamps about to surge? do we even need mail anymore? so many questions. and as we head out, what's moving today? mastercard and visa both hitting new all-time highs.

mcdonald's suing the city of milan for $32 million after it was evicted from the galilee of million in annual sales. shares of mcdonald's down slightly today at $93.57. survival is the focus of the

power rundown today. cnbc's bob pisani and kayla tausche. the rumble on long island is one headline today after president obama an his republican opponent, mitt romney, traded jabs. did you watch it last night? a tense and testy debate, for sure. was this the big fight that everyone expected and who won? ladies first. >> i think they call it strong island for a reason. there was a strong arming last night. long of strong words. the body language was a little too hot for me to handle at times when romney was listening. you could almost see him clinching a fist in his pocket. i thought the president and governor romney did best at the end when they were only focusing on their own message and not trying to attack the other. >> it was like a boxing match. >> the president had to come out swinging. he needed to do that and he came out swinging. governor romney had to swing back. it was basically even. a great slugfest. i thought beyonce won.

did you see what happened? beyonce -- 100 people paid $40,000 to hang out with jay-z and beyonce. did you see of the picture they released with beyonce and the president? the president quick jay dehad one thing in common, both of their wives are more popular than the two of them are. >> speaking of swinging, the u.s. postal service has been forced to fund operations with revenue from stamps and other products. that's novel. after it had hit its borrowing limit. producers want to know do we still need a post office, kayla? >> i think we do. i think it serves a vital function. we're sending fewer bills with mobile banking but you still want to send a letter every flou and then. postal service has $65 billion in revenue. it actually raised prices just last week, 46 cents for a regular stamp. what they need to do is if they're producing more stamps to get that revenue up, stick to american flags. according to the inspector general, they produced 682 million surplus of homer simpson

stamps. >> they've hit their limit? they keep losing money? isn't that trying to tell us something here? congress did absolutely nothing to help them out. once again they left, they could have raised the limit, helped them out a little bit. they didn't do anything. they did write a letter of support in support of the postal office -- >> congress is usually pretty good at raising debt limits. >> yes, the postal service is needed if you are in rural areas. we know you're there, we know you need it. three, best buy announcing plans to sell its observe twn tablet. can best buy compete in an already crowded marketplace? >> i think if tablets have become commodities, the answer is yes. they can get 5% of the market and do very well. but remember up until this year and up until amazon, the kindle getting in, tablets were not. now i think they might be. >> i'm going to answer as a consumer. best buy has the reputation of a product retailer, not a product builder. i think with so much in flux at

the company it is going to be very hard to change consumers minds about yet another thing. i wouldn't buy it. >> will amazon match best buy prices. i'm amazed best buy can match any of the amazon prices. >> it will be a dog chasing its tail. >> kayla, thank you very much. tyler, back to you. folks, business mogul martha stewart hosting an event to recognize and encourage the next generation of american-made entrepreneurs and business leaders. sue is live at grand central terminal in new york city with miss stewart and another special guest. hi, sue. >> hi, ty. it is great to see you. this has been an amazing day here. we are in grand central in the heart of new york city and martha stewart has always thought big but grand central is pretty darn big. this is the first -- it is the inaugural american made martha stewart american-made awards. we literally just finished the

judging. we all came running out here. martha joins me and bob pittman joins me, good friend of power leverage, crow of clearchannel. glapgss, martha. you saw some amazing entrepreneurs in today's session. >> yes, we did. it is an elevator pitch of five young rising stars with good ideas and they had two -- or three minutes to pitch their idea to us and i think we chose a good one. and this is all about entrepreneurial initiative. this entire event. and it's also about discovering in america the talent that will carry business forward in the united states. there's 28 million small businesses -- small business entrepreneurs here in the united states at the present time. employing people. and i think it's creating jobs, they want to grow their businesses, they want encouragement, and i think it's really, really up to the

administration to encourage this and to work with them to make business come back to america. >> talk to me about that, bob. because you took over an industry that a lot of people thought was dead -- radio. and you re-invented this. this whole event is about the entrepreneur, about innovation, about -- and it comes at a time when we have a jobless rate that is unacceptable by any standards to anyone. what did you take away from the people that you heard from today in terms of the american spirit, the entrepreneurial spirit? >> i think it is the same thing that makes a big company really tick, which is -- you find something you're passionate about, you find an idea, you really sort of connect a consumer to a product. you're the piece in between. and it's finding a market that's not being served, spotting a new way of doing it, spotting a new way to communicate it. what was common among all those people, they had a passion for their idea. if you're in a big company, you say stop being a bureaucrat.

be passionate about an idea and let's go for it. we may win, we may lose but let's keep throwing the ideas out there and let's move forward and have a real forward momentum. entrepreneurs are the extreme example of that. they've got one idea, not many ideas inside a company that's already got a big idea. >> martha, do you have a sense of how the economy is doing. you have parts of your business in so many different parts of the economy. what is your sense in terms of where we are in the economic recovery? >> retail seems to be doing really well. people are spending on consumer goods. they are fixing up their homes. they're not building yet, not in big numbers. but they are certainly spending on themselves, on their children, on their homes. and i think that we just have to watch it really carefully. don't overspend. don't get too giddy because it's not that great yet, but i think we can only be optimistic and certainly hope that jobs will

come, people will be able to enjoy life a little bit better in the next four or five years. >> one of the things that people are worried about though is the looming fiscal cliff. you and i talked about it a little bit earlier this morning. there are those out there who think that that will -- if indeed we do get to the brisnk f it or you can go over the fiscal cliff, that that would derail any confidence the consumer has -- >> of course two derail our confidence and our hopes. we as a nation have to encourage our political leaders, our congress, to learn and think and really take this extremely seriously and see what the consequences would be. dire. >> bob, it seems to me we've haeshd in the past few days -- martha talked to us earlier about how congress has to really sit up and listen. jamie dimon, the ceo of jpmorgan chase made these same comments earlier in the week. we've heard a number of ceos

rally around the concept that perhaps washington might not be able to get it done but the ceos of america might be able to get it done. >> well, look. i think we're all putting pressure on them to think about it as the infrastructure we need to succeed as business people but what we're really doing is providing a service for consumers, providing jobs for consumers, providing revenue for the government and we need help to keep moving it forward. don't stop. the idea that we're going to stop and, my business, the biggest insult is study and review. that's an excuse for do nothing. if you get it a little wrong, you'll fix it along the way but the idea is we need people who are committed to the goal out there and move forward to get us there and i think all of us feel a little trapped if our government won't provide that kind of momentum and infrastructure we need to grow. >> it was interesting, we were talking this morning with calvin klein who very rarely does press. he was one of the people that you had on one of your panels this morning, martha.

he said something that i've heard from both of you today and it seems to be a common element. there are a lot of people out there who want to start businesses, who have great ideas, but they hold back thinking now is not necessarily the right time. he said to me, there is never a better time than right now. do you agree with that? >> i totally agree. started martha stewart living when magazines were closing each and every day. it was the best time to start a magazine. it's the best time to start a business business. if you have that idea, okay, don't invest your entire nest egg. go slowly but start. it's never, never the wrong time to start a good idea. >> i think you never have a good time. if i want to think of a reason not to do something, i can think of 100 reasons. i think the key is don't use your intellectual capacity to figure out why not to do something. use your intellectual capacity to figure out why to do it and how to get whatever hurdle the marketplace throws out. >> on that optimistic note,

congratulations on the award. see you again next year. >> thank you. >> let me pick it up, in the next hour of the program, call it a fast food tax haven. we'll look at how chains like mcdonald's, burger king and subway are setting up some creative ways to dodge taxes. up. a short word that's a tall order. up your game. up the ante. and if you stumble, you get back up. up isn't easy, and we ought to know. we're in the business of up. everyday delta flies a quarter of million people while investing billions improving everything from booking to baggage claim. we're raising the bar on flying and tomorrow we will up it yet again. oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor.

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seema mody here at the "market flash" desk. shares of dollar tree moving lower. intraday chart is down about 2.6% -- family dollar, excuse me. we have our cnbc research team all over it. we'll report back once we know the reason why. ebay and american express report tonight as we await for that to happen, relatively flat and slightly negative on the market. slight negative bias coming through there. done forget, we have a big european summit kicking off thursday, friday. 27 heads of state. will spain ask for a bailout? probably not this weekend, tyler. thank you, simon. jim, did you see or hear anything during the debate last night that caused you make about anything today?

>> i did. when governor romney talked about eliminating dividend and capital gains tax for people making under $213,000 a year, i thought that would put a little bit of a tailwind. i bought some s.o. but the bought some xou. >> thank you for watching "power lunch" today. simon? >> "street signs" begins right now. thank you. welcome to "street signs" where the sign on the street says "sold," but there is one thing that could kill this reestate rally. we're going to tale you what it is. what stocks predict the markets and where they're going. you'd think there wouldn't be one but there is. and your guest is here to tell you. plus, you want to be a vineyard v.i.p. ? our alternative investment series tells you